This is Good News Friday, where we find some good economic, energy, and environmental news and share it with PP readers. Please send any positive news to [email protected] with subject header "Good News Friday." We will save and post weekly. Enjoy!

Economy

In the early 21st century, just as in the late 19th, economics in general makes the assumption that individuals operate autonomously, isolated from the direct influences of others. A person has a fixed set of tastes and preferences; when choosing from a set of alternatives, he or she compares the attributes of those alternatives and selects the one which most closely corresponds to his or her preferences. At first sight, this may seem quite reasonable, or even ‘rational’, as economists describe this theory of behaviour. If I am interested in buying a product which many people want, I may have to pay a high price. So the choices other people make affect me indirectly through the workings of the market. My preferences, however, remain unaltered, according to this conventional view of economics.

In a statement, panel co-chair Alicia Barcena Ibarra put it this way: “Rethinking the way we use materials is essential if we are to safeguard humanity's future. A prosperous and equitable world that overcomes these problems will require transformative changes in how we live our lives and how we consume materials.” One of those proposals is to price raw materials in accordance with the largely unseen social and economic costs, which would inevitably shift the way we think about this planet’s resources.

It’s not just that more money doesn’t provide a straightforward increase in happiness. Social science research also underscores the importance of focusing carefully on the many ways in which jobs differ along dimensions other than pay. As economists have long known, jobs that offer more attractive working conditions — greater autonomy, for example, or better opportunities for learning, or enhanced workplace safety — also tend to pay less.

The planes of the future will probably also look a lot like Boeing’s Dreamliner – composite materials, greater fuel efficiency, and of course modern amenities for passengers. Still energy investors should not be worried about the obsolescence of jet fuel anytime soon. The reality is that for all of the advances of battery technology, energy storage density is still extremely impractical for powering aircraft at this stage. Hydrogen fuel presents an alternative option – hydrogen was the fuel specified in Airbus’ Mach 4.5 aircraft patent filing – but hydrogen fuel is highly volatile and combustible.

According to Musk, the purchase is central to Tesla. He intends to create a single solar energy/battery storage system that can make people energy independent with a single purchase. "We can't do this well if Tesla and SolarCity are different companies," he argues, going on to say that both companies have reached the point where they're ready to scale production of their products, so the time is right.

The researchers also found that the conductance of the nanopore increases with increasing pH. They think this could be due to an increase in accumulation of negative surface charges in the nanopores. Similarly, increasing the pH increases the generated voltage and current, underlining the importance of the nanopore surface charge to ion movements.

Across the U.S., there's no good documentation of how much produce gets tossed because of cosmetic imperfections, and losses vary from crop to crop, says JoAnne Berkenkamp, a senior advocate for food and agriculture at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But "we've typically found that growers reported [cosmetic-related] losses ranging up to 20 percent of production in a given year, but it could be higher in years of bad weather."

For apples, blemish-related losses can reach as high as 30 percent, according to data from Columbia Marketing International that Wal-Mart cites.

The findings are interesting: Though the treated cows did not produce more milk, they had higher calcium levels in both blood and urine. Improving those calcium levels is important: cows stricken with hypocalcemia have compromised immune systems, and are more likely to have health complications like ketosis and mastitis.

Gold & Silver

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A 28 trillion won ($24.6 billion) economic stimulus package, which includes a 11 trillion won supplementary budget, will be largely spent on corporate restructuring and stabilizing the livelihoods of the middle and lower income classes, including ...

The analysis compared those numbers to the 2016-17 budget, subtracting projected special education funds from figures provided by Chicago Public Schools. CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner acknowledged in a statement that accompanied the revised ...

The article above implies that jets will continue to run on liquid fuels, or perhaps hydrogen, for the foreseeable future. If the future is very fast transport, then this might be true. My thinking is that the need for very fast transportation will diminish as virtual reality and telepresence reduce the need for business meetings.

I will still like to go on vacations, but the crowding found in today's economy plane seating mostly eliminates the positives of getting there faster.

For short and medium range air travel (less than 600 Km), electric batteries will have the energy to weight problems resolved in about seven years. The Solar Impulse glider had batteries with an energy to weight ratio of about 170 watts per Kilogram, which was very good when it was designed five years ago. Currently the 'better' batteries are at about 200 to 250 w/Kg, and it is projected that we need about 500 w/Kg for replacing jet fuel on short range jets.

Additionally, going slower uses less energy. If planes had more 'space', I could accept much longer flights, as I accept longer train rides due to the fact that I can get up and walk back to the dining car and mostly sleep undisturbed.

Just hacked the clover down and chickens are lovin' it. Put a nice edge on the scythe and am sitting in the shade drinking a kombucha. Haven't traveled more than fifty yards. Feel like I'm on vacation and the 19th century doesn't seem that far away. Have a wonderfully sustainable Friday.

I planted white clover in my beds as a cover crop and then opened mini-beds within the clover to plant various vegetables. Learned the hard way that if I don't open up enough space in the beds the clover overtowers the seedlings, essentially out-competing them.

So, actual food production has taken a pretty big hit but the soil should be happy. I'm going to have to tweak this next year.

(Got this idea from Fukuoka Masanobu who liked to plant vegetables in meadows but might have to go back and have a re-read.)

A lacto-vegetarian diet (a vegetarian diet that includes dairy products) had the highest carrying capacity,

If you are raising goats or cows for milk, you will have male animals that are not needed. This means that you would (technically) have a little bit of meat in that scenario as well. The study acknowledged that some beef comes from dairy culls, so the authors are not stupid. I guess there is a limit to what these models can handle.

5) Will new technology from Silicon Valley be able to drastically reduce the usage of oil around the globe in only a decade?

6) Why isn't there more clean water available?

7) Many experts cite the Simon–Ehrlich wager from 1980 to 1990 as justifying that over the long term all commodity prices have to fall. But, despite what economic textbooks say should be happening, things have drastically changed since China joined the WTO and commodity prices are nearly all in long term uptrends and the cost of production for many commodities rises 10% or more yearly. What type of real world limits are there preventing commodity prices from declining over the long term that maybe was not seen or not available when this bet was made?

Harry Dent has predicted nearly every major economic trend over the past 30 years… including the 1991 recession, Japan’s lost decade, the 2001 tech crash, the bull market and housing boom of the last decade and, most recently, the credit and housing bubble…

Additnally, going slower uses less energy. If planes had more 'space', I could accept much longer flights, as I accept longer train rides due to the fact that I can get up and walk back to the dining car and mostly sleep undisturbed.

A fascinating subject Mike. I have two solutions. Neither of which are any good at going to the newsagent. ( It is sad that I have to say that out loud. )

Gliders. Gliders refuel in thermals. We need to pressurize the fuselage and use that energy for takeoff. And we need better Instrumentation to visualize thermals. At the moment we search about in the dark for thermals. I would use doppler radar and an algorithm to extract the vertical component from horizontal and 45° beams. (I'm talking about 2 person gliders. Again, sad that I have to clarify this issue.)

Solar powered airships. Everyone gets their own internet connected cabin. But we have to overcome the Hindenburg effect. "Oh, the horror! Oh, the humanity!" Oh, the hyperbole! Of the 100 people on board the Hindenburg, 78 stepped off and walked away. And it is not compulsory to paint the airship with aluminum powder and iron oxide

Humans need to consume red meat to acquire B12 since humans lost the ablity to self-produce about an eon ago. For now people vegans are getting by because many processed food contain B12 that is added.

Cattle and other livestock can be raised sustainabily on grass acres and hay. A lot of cattle is raised fairly sustainable. since the grass fields do not need to be plowed, sprayed with pesticides, heracides, and fertializers. Grass fields with grazing cattle self-fertialize the grass fields with every poop!

On the flip side most vegan diets require more destructive farming practices since farms need to use lots of agra-chemicals (Pesticides, herbacides, fertializers) and requires lots of water to irrigate fields. Top soil errosion is an problem since vegan crops usually require plowing, cultavation, and harvesting. Far more resources are need to grow food for the vegan diet than for cattle grazing on grass fields.

That said, the global human population level is completely unsustainable. Once the permanent energy crisis arrives its going to usher in a die off via war, panademics, etc. I could understand if your goal is to build yourself a homestead and be self-reliant, but to assume changing farming practices is going to continue the status quo, is just darn silly. At this point we certainly do no need to expand the food supply since it would provide the means to support even larger human population and further distance the global from sustainability.

Another huge problem is the rapidly rising age of farmers. Currently the average age of US farmers is about 60 years. Younger people do not want to work on farms and perfer to move to the cities or suburbs. In the not to distant future, there is going to be shortage of farmers. Putting more regulations and restrictions of farming practices is just going to drive more farmers into retirement and send younger people working on farmers to seek employment elsewhere.

The best option is leave the farmers alone and not interfere them with some god-awful regulations and resstrictions.

FWIW: Generally all this information your reading is originating from academics who have no real experience in agraculture. They get gov't grant money to spew out propaganda to support a non-sense agenda that has the complete oposite affect of the gov't mandate. Examples: ACA (Obamacare) Soaring healthcar costs not savings (CO2 emission regulation). By imposting CO2 restrictions, companies have simply relocated production to Asia that has zero regulations and has created huge new industrial complex that employes about a billion new industrialized workers. Before Western Production moved to China and India, the people lived on rural farms that were close to be sustainable. Now they have switched from sustainable jobs into heavy industry turn out megatons of more pollutions and destroying millions of acres. The sad thing is that these people had better lives living on rural farms, since they most will end up getting sick from exposure to toxics from the industrial work they are doing.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that a deflationary panic will force more electronic debt-tokens into gold. Just looking at the recent commodity deflation I notice that gold didn't depreciate by as much as either silver, copper or oil in percentage terms. If gold is seen as money by the big players during a panic then why will price go to $750?

In fact, he says: “Gold will sink to $750 an ounce and unemployment will skyrocket… We'll also see the Dow drop to 6,000 just for starters... It’s going to get ugly.”

I think he's wrong, because gov'ts are forcing bonds into negative rates to support there insolvent debt loads. Gov'ts are dead broke and the only way the can pay thier bills is to borrow billions. The problem is that the debt load is now so big that the interest payments on the debt is sucking too much money from their budgets so they need to revert to negative rates to keep their doors open. Already we are starting to see some large companies vaulting currency or looking for options to store money outside of the bond market.

Dent thinks that the gov't won't undermind their currencies, but there is not a single case in history that supports his argument. When gov'ts run out of OPM (other Peoples Money), they sacrafice thier currency so they can keep the game going. Right now this is exactly what Japan is doing, its just that its currency has not breach the tipping point yet. I think Dent thinks that the West will be like Japan and that deflation can be stretched out over a long period. Japan has an abnormal economy that does not apply to the rest of the world.

Dent has got the cause of the crisises right but not aftermath. He predicted that after the Housing bubble there would be a global depression, asset prices would tank and cash would be king. It didn't happen because Gov't and Central banks started printing money, and will continue to do so when the next big crisis unfolds. its far easier to see that a crisis is coming than it is to see how it will unfold. Gov'ts and people will not follow rules or laws, They will do whatever they can to remain in power.

As unemployment grows (which indeed is already unfolding) there will be an ever greater number of people forced to be reliant on gov't services. Gov't will continue to borrow and print money to continue provide wealth fare and entitlements until the currency goes bust.

That said, I am not a big proponent of loading up on Precious metals because:

1. if countries are implementing cash controls (ie to prevent savers from hording cash in matresses) that are certainly going to ban PMs too. I suspect that the value of currencies begin to collapse, gov'ts will enact laws to seize PMs, and offer PM owners pennies on the dollar for their PM holding. Perhaps you can bury in yoru backyard, but if you can't spend it, which makes it nearly useless as a currency. In the past gov't including the US siezed PMs from its citizens. You have to be careful now buying PMs since most gov't now demand coin and bullion dealers provide trackng information of their customers. So if you buy, they already know you have PMs and be prepared for a gov't agent to knock on your door to collect it, when the pass laws to seize it.

2. A better use of capital instead of hoarding PMs is to invest becoming self-reliant, Invest in a homestead with land that you feed your family with. You need land with a sizeable wood lot for heating, cooking and lumber. Tools, machinary, replacement parts & consumbles for essential tools and equipment. A means to self-defend your life and resources you need to survive.

3. If you expect that at some point you many need to flee your home-country, than Diamonds would be a better option to hoard since they cannot be detected with a metal detector at an airport or boarder checkpoint.

if Dent is right and and there is deflationary depression, then its likely living in a city or the Burbs is going to be dangerous. Crime will soar and so will violence. Getting essential goods like food is probably going to be a problem since gov't will likely be forced to ration food and other key resources and tens of thousands of business go out of business and the Just-in-time distribution system falls apart. A more pragmatic option is to invest in a homestead that is located in a rural area with a much lower population density. You can grow the food you need and you likely be closer to farms where food and other resources are closer.

In closing I don't have a crystal ball or time machine. I've given a lot of thought into self-preservaton over the numerous pending crisis's (Debt bubble, Peak Oil, Demographics cliff, over population, global resource depletion, global destabilization and the risks of global war). I consider myself an extereme risk adverse personality and I choose the path that offers the best chance of success. The best option is to relocate to a rural region and set up an homestead.

We live on a hill. Several hundred yards to the woods edge is pasture, orchards and gardens. Bernoulli made certain any air movement at all would be available. The large pin oaks surrounding the home provide shade, and their respiration cool.

we have a window unit for when it gets bad.

Do not worry for us, worry for those in high density pop. Settings who have....

Very well stated piece. I hope all PP folks will read your summation of Survival Priorities. I totally agree with your conclusion that a rural homestead is the best investment at this point. Not being an "all in" type of guy I would suggest a modest amount of Silver or Gold .....kinda like the 5 to 10% range, just in case it does become a recognized currency once again. I think you agree by saying to "not load up". We are also quite risk averse, and find a lot more comfort in building out the homestead than trying to outsmart the market manipulators.

There are many side advantages to living in a rural space. Like listening to the quiet, or the sounds of birds and farm animals, clear skies, and being able to see the milky way when you go outside to pee at night. HA.

If someone has the resources that would allow them to move to a rural place I would encourage them to make the change. It is a bit daunting at first, but after a few years it feels like you came back home.